Digital Branch of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Oral History Program

Samuel Kunaknana

Samuel Kunaknana was born in 1913 in Barrow, Alaska. His parents were Hattie and Hugo Kunaknana. As a boy, his family spent summers along the Ikpikpuk River, inland from Barrow, hunting caribou and fishing. They spent winters in Barrow. Around 1920, the family moved east along the Beaufort Sea coast. Like others of the time, they moved around and lived in a variety of places, such as Kuukpik, Itqiliqpaat, Piŋu, Oliktok Point (Uuliktuq), Kukpaurak, and Nuiqsat. At least one year they traveled inland and spent the winter in the Brooks Range. Samuel spent his life as a hunter, trapper, and reindeer herder. As a whaler and seal hunter, he learned to understand the sea ice and how to travel and hunt safely on it. He married Sarah Pausanna and together they raised a large family He also was known for his expert knowledge of Inupiaq tradition, history, and stories. Samuel Kunaknana died on April 6, 1991. For more about Samuel Kunaknana, see Qiñiqtuagaksrat Utuqqanaat Iñuuniaġniŋisiqun: The Traditional Land Use Inventory for the Mid-Beaufort Sea, Volume 1. (Barrow, AK: North Slope Borough, Commission on History and Culture, 1980).

Samuel Kunaknana was interviewed in July 1978 by Kenneth Toovak and Ron Metzner in Barrow, Alaska for a project related to potential oil development of the Alaskan continental shelf. The original interview was in Inupiaq. The interview was translated into English in 1979 by Molly Pederson and appears in the Historical References to Ice Conditions Along the Beaufort Sea Coast of Alaska (Scientific Report, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1979). The original recording is missing, so only the original transcript without audio appears below. In this interview, Samuel talks about sea ice conditions on the northern Beaufort Sea coast, in particular around Cross Island and the mouth of the Colville River. He discusses how the wind influences the ice and how and where pressure ridges are formed, as well as talking about whaling around Cross Island.